The joke used to be that you knew you were on Humberside when the whiff of fish filled your nostrils, but for the region this year the stench of relegation has filled the air. Hull have gone from the top flight but that stink may just be clearing on the south bank, after Grimsby took the fight to the final day with victory over their rivals for the drop.

Grimsby sold out their allocation for a match in which only victory would preserve the club's 100-year Football League stay. A healthy percentage of these fans flooded the Blundell Park turf after Mark Hudson drove in the decisive second goal in the third minute of injury time, before order was restored by police on horseback.

With a genuine sense of history to protect – the wooden main stand is the oldest of any at the 92 English grounds – there was an edginess to the occasion and the sense of relief was palpable when captain Rob Atkinson hooked in a volley on the turn just short of the hour. Momentum that sucked Grimsby towards non-league during a 24-game winless run earlier in the campaign has now seemingly switched allegiances.

This was Grimsby's sixth win in their past 12 matches while Barnet, with three former Premier League players in their starting XI, have lost half a dozen on the trot. Now victory for Neil Woods's team over Burton and failure by the Londoners to defeat promoted Rochdale would complete a remarkable escape.

"We knew this week we could affect our own destiny," Woods said. "We have now faced two games that we had to win or be relegated and we have done it one at a time." A third would not necessarily avert the drop and Paul Fairclough, who returned to free-falling Barnet as caretaker manager in midweek, bullishly declared: "We will win next week. I came back to the club to keep us in the Football League and we have to make sure that is what we do."

Indeed, it was hard to believe these teams were 90th and 91st on the ladder given the quality of the football at times and only three spectacular saves from Nick Colgan kept the visitors out in an end-to-end second period while Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro's 18-yard curler prolonged the drama when it struck the inside of an upright six minutes from time.